The European Community may have to revise its generally favorable attitude toward the Palestine Liberation Organization because of PLO support of Iraqi aggression in the Persian Gulf, Italian Foreign Minister Gianni de Michelis told the visiting foreign minister of Israel, David Levy, here Wednesday.
Levy arrived in Rome from Bonn for brief talks with de Michelis, who currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the E.C. Council of Ministers.
Their talks centered on the current situation in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East generally and on Israel’s relations with the 12 nations of the E.C.
The talks followed similar dialogue Tuesday between Levy and his West Germany counterpart, Hans-Dietrich Genscher. The two, who met at Genscher’s vacation home at Ban Reichenhall in the Bavarian Alps, also discussed economic cooperation between the E.C. and Israel. The issue of East German reparations to Israel was also briefly discussed.
Genscher praised Israel for its restraint in the Gulf crisis, thus making it hard for President Saddam Hussein of Iraq to draw the Arab-Israeli conflict into the fray, Ha’aretz reported Tuesday.
Levy told Genscher of Israel’s need for access to the E.C.’s internal market. Follow-up talks on this will be held on Sept. 18, according to a spokesman for Genscher.
Levy was scheduled to return to Israel on Wednesday evening.
E.C. MISSION TO MIDDLE EAST
De Michelis will lead an E.C. mission to Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia on Thursday and Friday in connection with the Gulf crisis.
“The mission is aimed at unifying the Arab world against Saddam Hussein, to try to create an Arab coalition against Saddam,” the Italian foreign minister was quoted as saying.
He admitted that Israel had been right in its assessment of Hussein as a threat to the West.
De Michelis will be accompanied by the foreign ministers of Ireland and Luxembourg, who are respectively the immediate past chairman and the next chairman of the Council of Ministers.
The so-called “troika” is the E.C. body that guides its policy in the Middle East.
Until recently, the E.C. has tilted toward the PLO as an ostensible force for moderation and negotiations. But that could change if PLO leader Yasir Arafat continues to be out of step with most Arab leaders with respect to Iraq.
De Michelis told Levy that “if the PLO goes on supporting Saddam Hussein, the European Community will have to make a re-evaluation of its attitude” toward the PLO.
He told Levy that he has already warned Arafat that his position in the Gulf crisis is wrong.
An Israeli spokesman who reported the conversation said de Michaelis’ remarks about Arafat were “quite important.”
Levy, for his part, told the Italian diplomat that “the events of last week have exposed the real face of Arafat and showed the world that he is still supporting terrorism and that he cannot be a partner in peace negotiations.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
